Page 448 of Shadowblood Souls
We talked about this next part as if it’d be simple. Well, I guess it issimple, in terms of how straightforward the act is, but it’s definitely noteasy.
Jacob, then Zian, and then Andreas—wavering out of sight as he goes—clamber carefully down the side of our car. They take the wide step across to the secure car one at a time.
But there’s no ledge along the side wall leading to the door they need to open. With the train rushing along the tracks, it’s not as if they can stand on the ground for leverage.
How are they even going to reach it while the car is in motion?
As Jacob and Zian bend their heads together in muttered conversation, my throat starts to prickle. The hunger inside me is gnawing at me for more shards of pain.
No. Not yet. Not today.
I’d like to sayNot ever, but no part of me really believes I can do away with the vicious need inside me forever anymore.
Zian boosts Jacob onto the roof of the secure car—slowly, so no thump gives away our presence—and then repeats the gesturefor Andreas’s invisible form. He hefts himself up after them using his supernatural strength.
They creep to the edge overlooking the door. Zee sprawls on his stomach and manages to lean down far enough to grasp the handle.
I think—I fucking hope—that Andreas is holding on to his legs to make sure he doesn’t slide right off. We could die here without taking a single bullet, skulls smashed on the ground whipping by below us.
Jacob makes a furtive gesture, peering down at the door. Then the metal starts to groan.
He’s wrenching at it with his telekinetic powers while Zian hauls with his wolf-man power. I push a little more emphasis into my scream, wincing at the thought of automatic gunfire.
But my shriek holds. And Jake has gotten even stronger since he shook up an entire mountain.
I don’t know whether he undoes the lock or simply breaks it, but the steel slab of the door crumples as he and Zee pull. Like it was made of nothing more than cardboard he’s dented to the side.
Zian jerks back a few inches for better balance and grasps Jacob’s hands. Without missing a beat, he swings Jake in through the opening.
Griffin sets a tentative hand on my back. I almost forgot he was there.
“I’m keeping them as calm as I can manage,” he says, just loud enough to be heard over the clatter of the train. “Are you going over there too?”
That was the plan. An abrupt jolt of panic shoots through me at the thought of maintaining my shriek while making the jump.
But I told the guys I’d be there with them. And I might need to be if they’re going to make it through alive.
I risk a shallow gulp of air with only a waver of my shriek. Then I spring across to the opposite car.
Zian has already tossed himself inside after Jacob. I assume Andreas has followed them, one way or another.
Hooking my hand under the doorway, I stabilize my fingers and then fling myself around the frame with a hasty tumble.
I land on my feet with a lurch of my chest—and a hitch of my shriek. One of the guards braced around us twitches his gun closer to aiming it at Jacob.
Shit. I steady my voice and motion hastily at the guys I can see. Zian snatches the handle of the inner door while Jacob tenses in preparation to exert his powers?—
And the car thumps over a broken bit of track.
The floor heaves under my feet, tossing me onto my ass. My shriek breaks completely.
As I suck in a gasp of air, one of the guards tackles me to the ground.
He slams my head into the floor face-first. My mouth is crushed against the metal surface.
I couldn’t scream again right now if I wanted to.
At least not the usual way.
